st of the evening performance, and scared
everybody half to death. Several people were hit by tent poles and hurt
some, and it was the wildest scene I ever saw, and people who got out
alive ran away in the dark, and somebody said the animals had all got
loose, and some of the people never stopped running till daylight the
next morning.

Some run into the river, and the ambulances carried the injured to
hospitals. Pa stampeded with the elephants, and never showed up till
noon the next day. By that time at least 1,000 people had filed claims
for damages, and all the lawyers from Albany to New York were on our
trail.

The managers appointed pa to settle with the injured, and the way he
argued with those people was a caution. One old woman was killed, and pa
tried to show her relatives that as she was old and helpless, and more
or less a burden to the family, they ought to pay the show something for
getting her off their hands. One tramp had his feet cut off, and pa
tried to show him how much he would save in shoes the rest of his life,
and that he was in big luck. We left pa at Poughkeepsie to settle the
cases, and went on to New York, and we heard the people had lynched him,
but he showed up in a couple of days with money left. Now all the
lawyers in New York are after us with claims and they have attached most
everything, and the show is up against it.

What a difference it makes who wants damages. When we were working the
railroad for damages, it was a cinch, and like getting money from home,
but now that the people are working us for damages, for being smashed up
under our tent, we look upon it as a crime, and tell them it is an act
of Providence, and that the show is not to blame for a windstorm. But
the lawyers can't be very pious, for they won't believe in the act of
Providence racket, and we shall have to cough up all the profits of the
season.

Since we got settled in New York for a two weeks' stand, in Madison
Square Garden, we are having the tents repaired, and don't have to put
up and take down tents, and ride all night on trains. We are all
stopping at hotels and getting rested, and pa is having a chance to
shine.

The managers think pa is trying to commit suicide, for he wants to take
the place of anybody who is sick or drunk, and is the understudy of
everybody. We got one act that just curdles your blood, a cage in the
ring, with lions and tigers and leopards, who go through all kinds of
stunts. One l